How an Everything-Must-Go Trump Sale Might Look

With all the attention on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s business and the potential conflicts that it could pose with the White House, one possible — if admittedly unlikely — solution has emerged.

He could sell the operation altogether.

More than any of his predecessors, Mr. Trump is facing questions about how his web of holdings, spread out over at least 20 countries, could conflict with his new role as president. While presidents appear to face different conflict-of-interest rules than government employees, they still have taken steps to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

But Mr. Trump, whose business includes condos in New York, golf courses in Florida and Scotland, and office buildings in India and Turkey, has an extensive set of real estate holdings, most of which bear his name. Critics contend that his business interests will create a conflict because of foreign dealings and American government contracts, and because his administration will be in charge of financial regulation that could affect the lenders to his properties.

Mr. Trump has said that he will remove himself from his businesses and that he will announce more details at a news conference on Dec. 15. Details are few at the moment, other than Twitter posts from him last week saying that “legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations.”

There is a potentially cleaner way of handling the conflict, though one that the president-elect would very likely eschew, and that is to sell the Trump Organization entirely. It isn’t as potentially difficult as it sounds, as the company is largely a hodgepodge of office buildings, condominiums, golf courses, a global brand-licensing business and even a winery.

Let’s look at each asset and see how much value Mr. Trump might realize in a sale, as well as how difficult it would be to sell.

Within the Trump Organization, much of the value is concentrated in four office buildings, in New York and San Francisco. Together, the complexes are valued at roughly $1.4 billion. But of them, Mr. Trump fully owns only 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, which Forbes magazine values at about $501 million, with a debt load of $156 million. That leaves an equity value of roughly $345 million.

Then there are 555 California Street, a top-tier office building in San Francisco, and 1290 Avenue of the Americas, in Midtown Manhattan. Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm, estimates the value of the San Francisco building at about $1.7 billion and that of the Midtown building at about $2.1 billion.

But the Trump Organization actually owns only about 30 percent of each. Majority ownership resides with the real estate giant Vornado Realty Trust, thanks to a tax-avoiding maneuver that Mr. Trump undertook years ago. Green Street estimates the combined value of the Trump equity stake in the two is about $725 million.

It is unclear what sort of conditions might come with these properties that could limit the number of potential bidders on Mr. Trump’s stake. But Jed Reagan, a senior analyst at Green Street, said that should the buildings ever come up for sale, they would most likely find a number of willing bidders.

“There would likely be healthy demand for these high-quality assets situated in two of the most coveted office markets in the U.S.,” Mr. Reagan wrote in an email. “We are now sitting at all-time high values for Midtown Manhattan office, roughly 15 percent above prior peaks achieved in 2007. San Francisco office values have appreciated at an even more impressive clip this cycle and are sitting even further in all-time high territory.”

Then there is Trump Tower, the current locus of power for the incoming administration. The Trump Organization sold off most of the building as condos, and does not own the land on which the Midtown Manhattan tower stands. But Mr. Trump owns the office and retail space, which Forbes has valued at about $371 million.

It’s possible that the heightened security at the complex has diminished the value of the real estate there, meaning it would be salable but at a value very likely well below the Forbes valuation.

Other real estate interests that Mr. Trump commands include the ground leases for the eight-story Niketown store next to Trump Tower and the new Trump International Hotel in Washington; half of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas; and the Trump hotel and retail complex in Chicago. Forbes has estimated the net value of those collectively at about $682 million.

Much has been written about the potential conflicts posed by the Washington hotel, whose lease lies with a federal agency that Mr. Trump will oversee. The other properties would in theory be easier to sell, though it is not clear whether a bidder would pay up for those properties.

The next part of the Trump collection is residential and retail assets. These are assets at nine different properties, many of them condos and retail space at old Trump buildings where he has sold the rest of the space. Selling individual condos and retail space is a headache, although it’s possible these could be packaged together for a sale.

Two of the bigger buildings are Trump Plaza and Trump Tower Penthouse. But these are smaller buildings and while salable are valued at about $105 million. Then there is Stark Industrial Park — a bankrupt property in South Carolina that was bought for $3.6 million. Its salability is unknown.

The rest are a jumble of apartments and retail spaces in buildings the Trump Organization built and sold off: Trump Park Avenue, Trump Parc and Trump International Hotel and Tower. Perhaps these could be sold in a bulk sale to a single buyer, but they are an assortment of properties valued at $302 million, which is most likely high. There is also a 4 percent stake in the roughly $1 billion Spring Creeks Tower in Brooklyn, which Mr. Trump inherited from his father.

Then there are the golf courses. Trump owns or operates 17 golf courses, as well as the winery. These properties include the Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral resorts in Florida and the Turnberry seaside golf course in Scotland.

These could be sold as a group. Looking at comparable publicly traded counterparts, ClubCorp — which owns or operates 207 courses — is valued at about two times revenue, or about $2.1 billion. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump’s holdings would fetch a similar premium, though as luxury resorts they could probably collect a more robust value. Forbes has estimated the combined net value of Doral and Mar-a-Lago alone at about $319 million.

What remains of the Trump business are perhaps the most problematic operations from a conflict perspective: the hotel and product licensing businesses.

Each draws significant value from the Trump name. The hotel division provides a license to construction using the Trump brand in addition to technical assistance; the Trump Organization manages some of the hotels. The product licensing business lends the Trump name to products ranging from fragrances to spring water.

These are harder to value — and to sell. Forbes estimates the construction branding business at $123 million and the merchandise branding business at $14 million, for $137 million total. But these are shots in the dark.

In some ways, these are comparable to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which Sequential Brands Group acquired last year for $353 million. It’s unclear how any company that bought Ms. Stewart’s business could continue to profit from the brand without her participation. The same goes with Mr. Trump’s branding businesses.

And unwinding the various licensing deals could be complex and time consuming. So perhaps this business can at best be wound down. Asking a normal person to forfeit $137 million might be a lot to ask, but in truth the most controversial part of Mr. Trump’s business is worth only about 3 percent of his estimated net worth. Not a big sacrifice for someone to be president of the United States.

For the rest of the assets, many of them are ultimately salable. But any hypothetical sale would most likely take significant time and present enormous difficulty, and would probably fetch much less than the $3.7 billion value that Forbes has estimated for the Trump business.

The process would also need someone to negotiate it — but it probably would not be the president-elect, who has bigger deals to manage.

Steven Davidoff Solomon is a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. His columns can be found at nytimes.com/dealbook. Follow @stevendavidoff on Twitter.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B5 of the New York edition with the headline: If Everything Must Go, the Trump Empire Can Be Sold Off. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe